Rock 'n Rolling ROPS

[Don_Curley]

Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

After using my B2910 for planting a whole lot of poplars (relatively light duty), I have now switched to leveling a couple of acres in preparation for a large garage/shop building on my property. I have been using a box blade for this, and this clearly moved my tractor into the heavy duty arena. Because the land is fairly rutted and bumpy, even at relatively slow speeds, my ROPS (and it's the one-piece type with an attached canopy), is rocking back and forth (or I should say, fore and aft) rather violently. It is clearly moving at the point it bolts to the ROPS subframe that comes up from underneath the rear fender assemblies. At first I thought the nuts must be loose, but when I checked them I could hardly budge them to tighten them further. Although I did not remove the bolts, I am now wondering if the bolt diameters are substantially less than the respective holes (thereby allowing the two "parts" of the ROPS system to inordinately flex at that juncture, independent of the relative tightness of the bolts themselves).

Has anyone else had this problem? Is the connection between the ROPS structure and its subframe supposed to be this loose for some reason? If not, how can this be fixed (i.e., short of welding the parts together, which I don't think would be a good idea)? The way my situation is now, I keep wondering when something is going to break, go into orbit, or come crashing down on my head. Somehow, this condition does not seem right to me. Any thoughts, suggestions, or experiences in this regard would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Don

 

[JATO_RaT]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Don, if its doing that to your ROP's imagine what its doing to everything else. If its that bumpy, it seems that the only solution is to slow down or get a D4 first and do some rough grading. I have done a ton of grading but never had the ROP's situation you describe. Good luck, Rat...

 

[Wheeldog]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Don,

I think there was a problem documented awhile back that sounds similar. I think it had happened with a B7500 or two, and maybe a B2710 - something about a missing spacer which prevented the bolt preload from getting enough friction into the joint at the attachment. Might want to check the archives - I think it goes back about 4-6 months or so.

Rob

 

[Don_Curley]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Rat,

Actually, my neighbor has a Cat and I wanted him to do the initial "hard" work, but he was unavailable (and I am under the gun to get the land prepped date-wise). But I'll tell you what, once this started happening, I was able to easily rock my ROPS/canopy assembly fore and aft quite easily by hand. And in terms of my speed, I am only running in low gear, so I am not burning-up the race track by any means. I am just quite surprised that the ROPS-to-ROPS subframe connection is so relatively loose (I can push and pull it by hand a good 1" to 2" of total deflection). With that situation, it doesn't take much of a bump in the road to get the ROPS assembly rocking.

Don

 

[JATO_RaT]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Oh, well then I guess something is a little loose. Get it fixed. I'm sure Kubota will want to know about this. Its their liability. Rat...

 

[Don_Curley]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Rob,

Thanks ... I'll do a search of the archives.

Don

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

I think I remember an issue with some of the folding ROPS rocking, rattling, etc. The cure for a lot of those was putting in a couple of washers that had been missed during dealer assembly.

I would check to be sure that the bolts haven't "bottomed" by running out of threads before they're tight. Aside from that, the ROPS bolts get tightened to a pretty high torque value, well over 100 ft-lbs as I recall.

The GlueGuy

 

[glennmac]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Something is wrong. By definition, a ROPS is supposed to be strong and rigid. I'd tell the dealer to fix it unless it is something obvious.

What variety of poplar did you plant there? Did you choose poplars for a fast growth rate?

 

[Don_Curley]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Glennmac,

Although my "local" dealer is 160 miles away, I am planning on contacting them with regard to this undesirable situation with my ROPS.

In terms of the poplars, my wife and I have been fond of the very tall, cylindrical types. We ended up planting 32 saplings along our western property line for a wind break. We went with a hybrid variety ... a Theves poplar ... which is supposed to be more disease resistant and longer-lived than the more common Lombardy poplar (although both share a very fast growth rate). Ironically, this tree planting project turned out to be such a physical task for country transplanted city folks, that we agreed to buy a tractor ... our first -- a Kubota B2910. So, these turned out to be some of the most expensive trees in the county. And now what? Well, of course ... we need a new steel building to properly house our tractor and implements from the elements. This is getting damn expensive (but we don't regret it either).

Don

 

[Bird]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Don, the ROPS on my B2710 is, and always has been, solid as a rock. Sounds like it has to be one or more of the things already mentioned: wrong bolts - diameter too small and/or too long without enough threads to tighten, or a missing spacer (and I'm not sure there is a spacer on that model).

Bird

 

[Mike_Dumond]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Sorry to hear about your ROPS, but I had to chuckle when I found out you were planting Poplars. (We call them popples up here). I spent the summer removing about a thousand of them. If I had known, I could have shipped them to you. Wonder if UPS or Fedex would ship 80 foot trees?

Keep the greasy side down.
Mike

 

[hayden]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Boy, I cut them down every chance I get. They're regular weeds where I am. Very often the first generation of trees to dominate a field that is left to grow back. Then they die and the hardwoods take over. Birch often plays a similar role.

 

[PaulT]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Don,

I am one of the 2710 owners with the same problem who posted a while back. I have a foldable ROPS, but I believe the problem is the same. In the end, I determined that the tolerances between the reinforcing plate inside the top ROPS section and the outside of the bottom ROPS section were to large. My remedy was to use some flixible magnet material - like what removable car door signs are made of, or promotional fridge magnets (I used red cross promo magnets about 2 inches around, 1/16 inch thick) I put one on each side until the top ROPS would just fit over the bottom ROPS, then I got out my BIG wrenches and my BIG torque wrench and tightened the bolts to 120 ft lbs. That is REALLY tight! Its also the spec (maybe its 112, but its in that neighborhood). THis sort of crimped the whole thing together and now it does not move at all. I don't plan on removing anything, so thats OK. Just be sure the lights are where you want them, otherwise you'll have to fight those bolts you just tightened so much/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. BTW - this is one of the few problems that didn't yield a satisfactory answer from the board, so I figure there are very few of us with this problem.

PaulT

 

[Don_Curley]

Re: Rock \'n Rolling ROPS

Paul,

After a couple of tries of searching the archives, I found your thread back in the May timeframe on this subject last night. This prompted me to call the service manager at my Kubota dealer about the issue. Here is his response ... he said that for many models and years of past Kubota tractors, that the ROPS connection at the subframe and ROPS itself was very tight. It was apparently so tight, that when certain specific service and repair operations required the removal of the ROPS, it was almost impossible for Kubota service personnel to get the two parts separated. When BFH's didn't work, he said that they would use a forklift to forcibly remove the upper ROPS loop (sometimes lifting the rear of the tractor in the process). Apparently, enough Kubota service personnel complained about this condition over the years, Kubota initiated a design change that purposely provided more slop at the interconnection. Good news ... the ROPS was routinely more easy to separate for their service personnel. The bad news ... now a lot more play allowed the ROPS to pivot and lurch back and forth when bumpy conditions were encountered. At this point, he said that almost everyone notices the problem and complains about it. Furthermore, Kubota service personnel are again (ironically) complaining to Kubota that they went too far in this "improvement". He says that this problem is extremely common. When I asked about putting shims or rubber in the excessive space between the parts, he said they (and other owners) had tried a number of things. Rubber did not work out, because it just worked itself back out due to the constant motion. From what he said, shims seem to work better.

Frankly, your solution of using flexible magnetic material sounds great. I am either going to try that or some form of metal shims and then gronk down on the ROPS bolts to the higher torque setting you mentioned. With a metal canopy bolted to my ROPS, I am simply NOT going to allow the whole ROPS structure to beat itself to death ... independent of whatever design approach Kubota has decided to take in this regard. Thanks much for your input and ideas Paul.

Don